“I came. I played. I stayed.”
Those were the unforgettable words of George Reed on Oct. 20, 1976, when a testimonial dinner was held in his honour.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ iconic No. 34 had announced his retirement from on-field duty on May 31 of that year, concluding an illustrious Canadian Football League career in which he had rushed for 16,116 yards and scored 137 touchdowns (including 134 along the ground) over 13 regular seasons. The yardage total swelled to 19,046 once playoff and Grey Cup statistics were added.
The 6-foot-0, 205-pounder arrived in Regina in the summer of 1963 and soon became a mainstay with the Roughriders and in the community.
Born in Vicksburg, Miss., and raised in the Seattle suburb of Renton, Wash., the Washington State University grad eventually became synonymous with Regina, Saskatchewan and the CFL.
He was beloved as much for first downs and touchdowns as he was for selfless acts of charity and remarkable decency — a legacy we celebrate today, amid the sadness.
George Robert Reed passed away on Sunday, one day shy of his 84th birthday, at his home in east Regina.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Angie, and their three children — Keith, Vicki and Georgette.
The Reeds had moved to Regina in the mid-1960s and remained in the city until 1984, when the peerless fullback moved to Calgary to become a district sales manager with Molson Brewery. He had been hired by Molson’s Regina branch in 1966.
Early in 2009, only a few months after the death of dear friend and fellow Roughriders legend Ron Lancaster, Reed moved back to Regina. He had just been hired by the Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation as its director of guest and community relations.
In that capacity, he was as tireless and generous as he had been as a player, lending his good name and gentlemanly greatness to innumerable worthy causes — such as the Special Olympics, which he had helped to bring to Saskatchewan in 1974.
Chapter 2 of Reed’s time in this province allowed him to meet and captivate an entirely new generation of fans.
As was the case in Chapter 1, the honours kept coming. Modest in the spotlight, he humbly accepted all accolades — the list of them all resembling a scroll — while deflecting all praise.
Football-wise, Reed was the first Roughrider to be named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player. He was called to the podium in 1965 after rushing for 1,768 yards (an enduring franchise single-season record).
On Oct. 24, 1965, he established an as-yet-unbroken team single-game rushing record — 268 yards — as the Roughriders defeated the B.C. Lions 30-14 at Empire Stadium in Vancouver.
On Nov. 26 of the following year, Reed rushed for 133 yards to help Saskatchewan win the first Grey Cup championship in team history. He scored on a 31-yard, fourth-quarter run as the Green and White defeated the Ottawa Rough Riders 29-14, again at Empire Stadium.
Precisely one year later — on Nov. 26, 1967 — he became the first CFLer to rush for 200-plus yards in a playoff game. He gained 204 yards as Saskatchewan outlasted the Calgary Stampeders 17-13 at Taylor Field.
In 1968 and 1969, Reed was the runner-up for the league’s Most Outstanding Player Award.
By the early 1970s, with a handful of years still remaining in his playing career, he had virtually monopolized the CFL’s and the Roughriders’ rushing records.
He went one step further in 1973, setting a professional football record for rushing yards, eclipsing the standard of 12,312 that had been set by Cleveland Browns legend Jim Brown.
Also in 1973, he became the rare CFL player to be profiled in Sports Illustrated, and Oct. 7 of that year was declared George Reed Day in Regina. The Province of Saskatchewan went one step further and, for one time only, changed Oct. 7 to Oct. 34. (The Roughriders’ next home game, on Saturday against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, will take place on the 50th anniversary George Reed Day.)
By the time Oct. 34 was celebrated, Reed was early in his accomplished and lengthy tenure as president of the CFL Players’ Association, which made countless inroads under his administration.
Reed’s dominance and durability on the field were such that in 1975, during a season in which he turned 36, he rushed for the third-highest yardage total of his career (1,454) and produced an unprecedented 11th 1,000-yard season.
As well, he was named a West All-Star for the 10th time. He was a nine-time CFL All-Star and a six-time league rushing leader.
Also in 1975, the George Reed Foundation was formed to assist people with physical challenges. Club 34 became the Foundation’s fundraising component.
It was another off-the-field milestone for the inexhaustible, incomparable Reed, who at one time was associated with 47 charitable or community groups.
“If you want something done,” Reed said matter-of-factly, “ask a busy person.”
In January of 1976, Reed signed a new contract with the Roughriders. It was a shock, then, to hear him announce on May 31 of that year that he was retiring as a player.
“The time has come, I guess,” he told reporters.
Fittingly, Reed in 1976 became the inaugural recipient of the Tom Pate Memorial Award, which recognizes excellence as a player and a person. (Lancaster became the second winner of the award, in 1977.)
On Oct. 24, 1976 — the 11th anniversary of the landmark 268-yard rushing game — George Reed Day was held at Taylor Field.
His uniform number was retired at halftime of a game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, whereupon the trademark No. 34 jersey was given to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
Reed formally entered that shrine in 1979, when he was also inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame (of which he later became the president).
Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame came calling in 1984.
Preceding those inductions was the decoration of Reed with our country’s highest civilian honour — the Order of Canada — in 1978.
He received this province’s most prestigious form of recognition, the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, in 2013.
One year earlier, an image of Reed had been prominently displayed on a postage stamp commemorating the Grey Cup’s 100th anniversary.
Statues of Reed and Lancaster were unveiled outside Mosaic Stadium on Sept. 4, 2017, the same year in which the Roughriders first played at the new facility.
Reed typically attended games at Mosaic Stadium and sat high above the north side, in a small area known as Section 34.
On Nov. 13, 2019, a stretch of road — beginning at Elphinstone Street and running west along the stadium to Gate 2 — was renamed George Reed Way.
The Roughriders’ official address then became 1734 George Reed Way.
Reed’s name and image are also displayed at several locations inside the stadium, where a full list of SaskTel Plaza of Honour enshrinees can be found.
Reed and Lancaster were among the Roughriders’ shrine’s nine charter inductees in 1987.
Another member of that elite group of nine — legendary Head Coach Eagle Keys — put it perfectly when he was called to the Hotel Saskatchewan podium at the aforementioned testimonial gala in 1976: “Only God knows if He’ll plant another seed, to produce a football player as good as George Reed.’’
